Residents, businesses and professional drivers are being invited to have their say as West Northamptonshire Council launches an eight-week consultation on the Draft West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) Private Hire and Hackney Carriage Licensing Policy.

If adopted, the draft WNC policy will replace the current policies for the former local authority areas of Daventry, Northampton, and South Northants.

The policy sets out the driver, vehicle and operator standards for hackney carriages and private hire vehicles for current licence holders and all new licence applicants.

The consultation specifically focuses on continuing to increase standards and robust measures to ensure public safety at all times, and is carried out under the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976.

Cllr David Smith, Cabinet Member for Community Safety & Engagement and Regulatory Services, said: “This draft policy seeks to ensure that we work closely with professional drivers to provide them with access to training and processes to maintain vital safety standards.

“As part of the pre-consultation period we have undertaken engagement work with local licensed drivers and operators, which has directly supported the development of the policy to ensure that this collaborative. I would encourage residents, businesses and professional drivers to review the policy and have their say.”

The partnership work also includes working with Northamptonshire Police as we look to develop a new safeguarding assessment to support professional drivers.

The consultation will be until 26 March 2023 and can be found online at https://westnorthants.citizenspace.com/cet/draft-taxi-policy-2023

Once the consultation closes, all responses will be evaluated and considered. The evaluation will then be presented along with the policy to WNC’s Licensing Committee for consideration before the policy is adopted and comes into force.